Abstract

The social embeddedness of the guest multinational enterprise (MNE) is presented as a multi-layered series of interfaces between expatriate managers and agencies and actors within the host state. In contrast to the unilinear and intentional development of strategic relations between the parties described in much of the literature on international business, the author seeks to demonstrate that relations are segmented by a diversity of micro- and macro-social and political considerations. Not least among these are differences of life chances among ethnic groups in the host country and by careers within the guest MNE. The study that provides the basis for these observations is presented as a ‘high-context’ deep description of roles and actors within the head offices of 20 European MNEs and within their affiliates located in Brunei Darassalam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.